RON WESTWOOD CUTTHROAT AUDIO
The reproduction lane of the boutique amp highway followed a mostly chronological path towards the destination we now reside in – which is to say that virtually every desirable design is well covered and they’re all available for the right price. While progressing, however, from the Fender-style tweeds that spawned the early boutique-repro boom to the reborn AC30s and AC15s, JTM45s and Plexis, the craze largely leap-frogged Fender’s short-lived brown amps of the early 1960s.
Sure, some smaller makers caught up with the omission and some form of brown-panel Deluxe or Princeton was generally out there if you went looking for it. But plenty of players who have experienced Cutthroat Audio’s take on the form will tell you that none fully plumbed the potential of the tan-Tolex 6G3 Deluxe until Ron Westwood unveiled his Down Brownie in 2016, which quickly became the transitional 1x12 20-watter to beat.
Coincidentally, elements of Westwood’s bio read much like that of a certain Fullerton-born inventor who, after a detour in an entirely different line of work, would go on to found the company whose products Cutthroat’s creations are now emulating. Westwood was born and raised in La Mesa, California, a San Diego suburb about 100 miles south of Leo Fender’s old stomping grounds. He also trained in accounting at university – taking a four-year degree, rather than Leo’s two-year junior-college diploma – before heading off into the business world.
“I got that not because I was interested in accounting,” says Westwood, “but I
